Internet Explorer turns 10

The first Microsoft product I ever shipped, Windows 95, launched 10 years ago today. Around the same time we also launched Internet Explorer 1.0 (though with considerably less fanfare), which quickly gave way to IE 2.0 (which shipped with the Plus! Pack for Windows 95). 6 years later we launched Windows XP, which shipped IE 6.0. That’s more or less 1 new version of IE a year for 6 years. Of course the pace with which we ship versions of IE has dropped off since then with our most notable recent release being Internet Explorer for Windows XP SP2 in 2004, but it’s nice to be back on track with Internet Explorer 7 on the horizon.

When we were working on early versions of Internet Explorer we had no idea where the Internet would take the world, or how we would fit in. Think back: do you remember the first commercial you saw on TV where the advertiser actually showed their URL (I remember: for me it was a Colgate commercial). We do so much with our browsers today that we take for granted, but do you remember the first time you bought something over the Internet? What about the first time you checked your bank balance, the first time you booked concert tickets, or the first time you were pointed to an URL instead of a .EXE file to install an application? It’s an amazing experience to be involved in a product that’s been part of such a revolution.

With that, happy birthday to Internet Explorer and thank you to everyone who’s used IE and are excited as I am about IE 7!

- Christopher Vaughan

PS – Wikipedia has a short history about IE, and there’s one up on Microsoft.com too, though it’s a little out of date (I’ll see if we can update that soon)